Washington State Achievement Index
Time on your hands this summer? This Index from OSPI and the State Board of Education has some interesting data (although it may be me, but I'm not sure I get how they get to their final number for any given school.)
Comments
The Center School 8.33
Ballard 8.01
Roosevelt 7.70
Nathan Hale 7.59
Cleveland 7.24
Garfield 7.17
Franklin 6.94
West Seattle 6.74
NOVA 6.63
Chief Sealth 6.60
Rainier Beach 6.51
Ingraham 5.98
An Option School ranks the best.
HP
"although it may be me, but I'm not sure I get how they get to their final number for any given school."
Perhaps they tossed data into a food processor.
The Governor and friends wanted a single number assigned to a school so it could be graded. (WOW!!! what does this tell us? Perhaps it tell us more about politicians than schools.)
Here are the schools from the above list from HP
with the academic performance number for all students.
Ranking greatest to least:
9.50 - Center
8.72 - Roosevelt
8.67 - Ballard
8.40 - Hale
8.35 - Garfield
8.18 - West Seattle
7.92 - Franklin
7.84 - Cleveland
7.75 - Nova
7.68 - Ingraham
7.50 - Chief Sealth
6.54 - Rainer Beach
So what, now what?
-- Dan Dempsey
HERE
-- Dan Dempsey
percent of Low Income students added.
Top three schools also have least poverty.
Here are the schools from the above list from HP
with the academic performance number for all students,
followed by [[percent of students "Low Income"]]
Ranking greatest to least academic performance #:
9.50 - [[19.0%]] - Center
8.72 - [[14.7%]] - Roosevelt
8.67 - [[17.8%]] - Ballard
8.40 - [[31.3%]] - Hale
8.35 - [[38.5%]] - Garfield
8.18 - [[40.4%]] - West Seattle
7.92 - [[67.5%]] - Franklin
7.84 - [[69.8%]] - Cleveland
7.75 - [[26.4%]] - Nova
7.68 - [[34.4%]] - Ingraham
7.50 - [[59.8%]] - Chief Sealth
6.54 - [[81.2%]] - Rainer Beach
-- Dan Dempsey
HP
This means that 60% of the variation in academic performance can be explained by the percentage of low income students the school has.
The correlation coefficient between low income percentage and academic performance is -.7767
Once again poverty is a huge contributing factor to student success. I long for the day that all my students come to class knowing where their next meal is coming from and knowing where they are going to sleep tonight.
Most schools had a lower comp index than 2014 Index Rating except for The Center School, Ingraham and Hale. It was all kind of confusing.
I just do not see the point in much of this (other than to confuse).
How does any of this tinkering with numbers improve instruction?
The Giant Elephant in the room is continually neglected by policy makers.
One size does not fit all. This Index Rating system solves nothing.
All WA 8th graders: 24% scored "well below standard" on MSP Math in 2014 the same as most years. Make that 43% for Black 8th graders in WA State and 39% for Black 8th graders in Seattle.
In 2004 one state required Algebra II for high school graduation Arkansas.
WA State committed to this total disconnect from reality in April 2008.
You must be kidding - Algebra II required for High School Graduation
Policy makers raised standards for everyone to graduate --- which has resulted in faking it rather than providing adequate instruction for kids who struggle.
Try this: July 22 2015 - Washington Post
Three out of four high schoolers failed Algebra 1 final exams in Md. district
As Maryland’s largest school district rethinks its long practice of giving final exams, new data show that steep exam failure rates persist in math, with three out of four high school students flunking the June test in Algebra 1.
WA State needs to put in place three HS diplomas and stop the current "Career & College Ready" scam.
#1 General Diploma
#2 Standard Academic Diploma (the current requirements)
#3 Advanced Academic Diploma
-- Dan Dempsey
Thanks for the correlation coefficient.
In 2006-2007 I was teaching at West Seattle HS. The District had instituted a Math class for High School Juniors that had failed to pass the math section of the WASL as sophomores at Well Below Standard. It was actually aimed at teaching those students at an appropriate instructional level.
I long for the Bureaucrats to grasp reality and provide realistic expectations as well as provide appropriate support for students. One size fits all is not it.
-- Dan Dempsey
It discusses how little difference there is between the education available at different colleges. Many ideas in this article about ranking colleges could be applied to the Washington State Achievement Index for high schools.
The Fundamental Way That Universities Are an Illusion
“If there is one thing that characterizes the research on between-college effects on the acquisition of subject matter knowledge and academic skills, it is that in the most internally valid studies, even the statistically significant effects tend to be quite small and often trivial in magnitude.”
The illusory university pretends that all professors are guided by a shared sense of educational excellence specific to their institution. In truth, as the former University of California president Clark Kerr observed long ago, professors are “a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over parking.”
.... the alternative is admitting that many selective institutions are not intrinsically excellent; they were just lucky enough to get into the business of selecting the best and brightest before everyone else.
-- Dan Dempsey
Here are Seattle SD " F- " rated schools.
% Low Income .. name .. % transitional bilingual
82.2% Emerson El. 25.8%
73.5% Hawthorne 31.5%
77.3% Highland Park 27.0%
90.6% Martin L. King 45.7%
66.7% Madrona k-8 7.5%
81.2% Rainier Beach HS 22.2%
24.0% Cascade Parent Partnership 1.1%
72.1% Interagency Programs 6.1%
00.8% Private School Services 0.4%
97.3% Seattle World School 99.7%
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Schools with a high percentage of low income students and a high percentage of transitional bilingual students are not performing well... " F- " for them.
So Governor Insley how is this rating useful as a means to improve instruction at these schools?
The "College & Career Ready" looks like a pipeline to unemployment for those without a High School Diploma.
-- Dan Dempsey
just fyi